Harry Potter and the Fate of Hogwarts
by WerghofTur
Summary: This story takes place during Harry's Fifth year; formerly 'Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Touch'. The future of Hogwarts school is determined by a new student.
1. The Myth of the Sorcerer

            Chapter 1

            The Myth of the Sorcerer

            Harry had spend the bulk of the summer holiday at number four Privet Drive, living with the Dursleys, as was Dumbledore's request.  He had a subscription to the Daily Prophet, but was still miserable about having to live with his 'muggle' family.  Despite constanly bombarding Dumbledore with owls as to the holocaustic conditions with the Dursleys, he was reluctant to have him leave, wanting him to stay in the relative safety of not being in the wizard world.  Dumbledore was not without compassion, however, as he let Harry stay with the Weasley's for the last week before leaving for Hogwart's.  Even on the day to get on the Hogwart's Express, Harry was still thankful for being lifted from the prison that was the Dursley's home.

            Harry open the day's edition of the Daily Prophet as he had done for countless mornings the summer over.  During his three months away from school, there had been numerous rumors and sightings of Voldemort and his following moving throughout Europe all through the summer.  He was surprised to see no mention of him at all.  However the headline intrigued him nonetheless:  'Alliance Formed with Myth'.  As he skimmed though the article a side paragraph caught his eye.  It read as follows:

            The Myth of the Sorcerer

            According to legend, the sorcerer is

            like a wizard in the respect that they

use magic, however the similarity

ends there.  Where a wizard requires

a wand, a sorcerer solely relies on

words and hand signals, with an

occasional trinket.  The first reported

case of a sorcerer is also the first 

written account of anything.  The last

documented report was just after the

war of the American secession from

England.  Since this time, wizards have

been sometimes given the title of

sorcerer as a mark of status and

accomplishments.  But the

aforementioned definition has been

regarded as a fairy tale, a story to

frighten young wizards into behaving

themselves.  In light of recent events,

this apparently isn't so.

            Harry read bits and pieces of the main article but nothing else peaked his interest.  "I see you've already heard," Mr. Weasley said as he walked into the room, "I wish I could tell you more than is in that newspaper but it is being kept strictly on a 'need to know' basis.  But then again, you'll probably find out more before long….." he trailed off, looking at his watch.  "We'd better get moving if we're gonna make it to the train on time."  He looked up the stairs and shouted, "You nearly ready yet Ron?"  Ron clambered down the stairs, his trunk banging on the stairs behind him.  They piled their trunks in Arthur's new car and got in.  Shortly after leaving, a voice was heard emanating from the back seat.

            "Took you guys long enough, it feels as though I've been waiting in here for hours."  Ginny stuck her head up front saying, "Now remember what Mum said, 'No more short cuts'."

            Despite of Ginny's reminder, Mr. Weasley decided to cut through a few areas to save on some time.  He failed miserably of course, getting them there just in time for the final boarding call.  When they arrived, they found Hermione standing on the platform, tapping her foot impatiently.  She quickly helped them load their stuff on board before they all got on.

            "It's about time you got here," she said as they moved down the train.  "I was starting to.." she paused as the train lurched forward, sending her to the floor.  "..starting to think you weren't coming," she finished, climbing to her feet.  "I expect all the seats are taken by now."  She moved down the corridor glancing in each compartment to see if it was occupied.  She was just about to give up when she saw one that apparently had no one in it.  "Over here you guys," she called out waving at the open one.  As Harry, Ron, and Hermione piled in, Ginney ran off upon seeing some of her friends beckoning her.  "I mean really," Hermione said as she took a seat, "another five minutes and you would have had to Walk to Hogwarts.  What were you thinking….whats that?" she said pointing at a wisp of smoke floating toward the window.

            All three of them looked in the direction of the door.  Sitting near it, with his legs drawn up on the bench in a fetal position, was a boy.  His upper body and head were hidden behind an enormous book, with his arms drawn up from underneath on eith side of the spine.  He was dressed in cobalt blue robes with a leather belt, lined with pouches, wrapped around his waist, with an inornate but interesting dagger on his right hip.  On the back of his right hand was a black, Celtic scrolling tattoo that ran up his middle and ring fingers, and down his arm for as far as they could see before it disappeared under his robe.

            "Excuse me," Hermione waving the smoke away from her face.

            The boy in the corner moved his book down to reveal a cigarette hanging from his mouth.  "I'm sorry, didn't realize anybody else was in here," he said.  "Does this bother you?"

            "It does."

            "I'll get rid of it then," the boy said as he flicked the cigarette out the open window.  The first thing they noticed about him was his unobstructively shaven bald, head, with a dark red tattoo inhabiting the left side of his scalp in the shape of a crescent.  He closed his book and set it down on the bench.  Hermione was immediately intrigued by the title 'Uses For Necromancy in the Modern World'.  "Well, are yall gonna` introduce yourselves, you are in my compartment ya` know."

            "My name is Hermione Granger, that's Ron Weasley, and this is Harry Potter.  And You are?"

            "You may call me Andrānos, just, Andrānos."

            "No surname?"

            "No, no last name."

            "Last name?  You're an American, aren't you," Hermione said with a glare.

            "Yes, I'm an American," Andrānos replied sarcastically.

            "Well, I'm pleased to meet you, Andrānos," Harry said as he stood up to shake his hand.  Ron did likewise but in the process knocked Harry's glasses off his face and onto the floor.  Before Harry could stop him, Ron had already stepped on them breaking the frame.

            "Gosh, I'm sorry Harry, I didn't see them."

            "Don't worry Ron, easy enough to repair," Hermione said.  She picked up the glasses and, after tapping them a few times with her wand, handed them back to Harry, good as new.

            "That's pathetic," Andrānos said squinting his eyes, "is that really the best you can do?"

            "I suppose you can do better?" Hermione said sharply.

            "As a matter of fact," Andrānos said, standing up, "I can."  He reached into a pouch and pulled out two eagle eye balls.  Taking one in each hand he said: _zoma-shintona vintakneege_, he closed his hands, holding them up to his ears.  _Zantapna, zantapna, zantapna kintone_, he stretched his arms out in front of him, _bintonga zimtaagni_, he opened his hands again,_ bintonga zimpone._  Suddenly, the eyes burst into flames, giving Ron and Hermione a start.  Harry just stared blankly into Andrānos' penetrating eyes.  _Domasheen_!, Andrānos said as he quickly closed his hands and stuck each index finger at Harry's eyes.  From his extended digits, a tiny column of fire shot out, straight into Harry's eyes.

            His vision went immediately black, then white, and then slowly faded into color and eventually into the normal world, though greatly distorted.  He removed his glass to rub his eyes and was amazed to clearly see Andrānos leaning toward Hermione without them.

            "Why repair the glasses," Andrānos said, "when you can just as easily repair the eyes."  He pulled out another cigarette and lit it.  After taking a long drag and blew it up at the ceiling before looking at Harry and said, "Was it good for you?"


	2. Fun Before School

            A/N: It has come to my attention that there may or may not be an error in the spelling on the sorcerer's name.  It should be spelled Andranos with a line being over the second 'a'.  This is supposed to be pronounced An-dra(long 'a')-nos(long 'o').  Except for in paragraph three, where it is meant to be pronounced

An-dra(short 'a')-nos(short 'o'), with all other pronunciations being the former.  Also, seeing how it has become an enormous pain in my ass to go up to insert, then the appropriate symbol every time I type his name, as well as the fact that most people probably wont see it that have contributed to the fact that I won't be doing it any more.  Also, I am told that the majority of people that read from this site are British.  Now I'm an American and my knowledge of British terms and slang is not the best, but I'll try the best I can.

            A/N: Also, please give me some constructive criticism such as other words or phrases to use so that there is not a repeat of the paragraph in the last chapter where I used the word 'eye' five times in an eight sentence…..paragraph.  And no, the title 'Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Touch' does not imply that the Sorcerer is going to molest or have sex with Harry, if that's what you were thinking.

Chapter 2

            Fun Before School

            Walking into the Great Hall, Harry was still getting used to not needing to wear his glasses.  When he entered he saw the same teachers at the head table as were there last year, with the Moody that was up there being the real one of course.  Everyone that is, except Hagrid and McGonagall, who were most certainly getting the first years.  Something he was careful to note though, was that Andranos was nowhere to be seen.

            The three found their seat quickly and sat down to discus what happened to them over the summer holiday.  It eventually came up that Hermione had received a letter informing her that she was a prefect.  But just as they started pressing details from her, the first years started filing in.

            *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *

            The sorting ceremony proceeded without incident, but when the first years entered, Andranos, as well as two other older looking students, came in with them, standing by the door that lead in all the while.  After the sorting, Professor McGonagall had something else to add.  "We have three guests from other schools joining us this year, whom we will sort now.  Will Terry McEwen from the Cairn School of Wizardry and Witchcraft please step forward," McGonagall said.  The boy on the right of Andranos approached the hat and put it on.  After a few seconds, it shouted out "Hufflepuff", after which he walked over to the appropriate table among much cheering and sat down with the seventh years.  "Will Anya Sovestenka from the Takovka Zivot Skola please step forward.  The girl on the left of Andranos walked up to the stool putting on the hat.  A minute passed by before it screeched out "Ravenclaw".  She jogged over to the appropriate table among much cheering and sat down with the second years.

            "Will Andranos from the Fyndow Academy of Sorcering Arts please step forward."  Everyone widened their eyes and sat up straight with that sentence.  A few people even stood up to see what he looked like.

            With a sneer growing across his face, Andranos criss-crossed his arms over his face.  While quickly opening his arms, he shouted out _jintag_!  Suddenly, five small, pulsating red balls shot out from him, two from each arm and one from his chest.  They spread apart with a low pitched whoosh and converged on Professor McGonagall's hat, which was knocked off her head and sent flying across the room.  "The name, is Andranos," he said walking up to the stool.  Still looking shocked, she put the hat on his head.  It barely touched his head before it shouted out a resounding "Slytherin".  

            "Before you take your seat, Mr. Andrānos," Dumbledore said standing up, "perhaps you could grant us a less violent demonstration of your skill."

            "What do I look like, a fucking parlor trick?  …..alright," Andranos said with a grin.  He turned to face the house tables and pulled a handful of white powder from a pouch on his belt.  He rubbed his hands together and held them open in front of him, palms up.  _Vintonga zintomba zelechno vantome_, he moved his palms to face each other.  _Starsakya, starsukya, bintomba zintome_, he moved both hands to one side and started miming out a sphere.  _Vintag, vinyosh somazee vynona, zimbabaa sumtoma sheen_.  As he swirled his hands around, the white powder flaked off his palms and formed a ball, suspended in-between his hands.  _Karnak tomasiona, siasiona, yarnukya sometaluk_,  the ball started glowing a faint but obvious white.  _What was once enhanced, now becomes the norm_, he said hollowly as he thrust his arms forward and moved his palms to face the house tables with his wrists touching.

            The ball floated slowly down the length of the hall trailing white spots of light behind it that spread out in every direction.  As it passed though, every floating candle fell straight out of the air, right onto the heads of the students.  As it passed, the ceiling behind it no longer looked like the sky, just a normal vaulted ceiling.  Harry noticed his vision going back to the way it was as Neville's Remembrall exploded.  Everyone who had a sneakoscope out saw it fall over as everyone who had a wizard photograph watched the motion cease.  Andranos spun around and leaned over the teacher's table until his face was a mere foot away from Dumbledore's, saying, "I hope this little dis-enchant doesn't interrupt the meal."  Andranos slowly walked over to the Sytherin table among total and complete silence and sat down directly across from Malfoy.

            "Bloody hell," Ron said, shaking the shock from his face, "did you guys see that?"

            "It was a little hard Not to see it," Hermione retorted as she picked candles off the table.  Harry pulled his glasses out of his pocket and put them on, looking over the devastated hall.  He was shocked at how much darker it was without the candles floating overhead.

            Dumbledore stood up, looking shocked himself, and said, "As a reminder to you, and as a warning to the first years, the Forbidden Forest is just that, off limits to all students.  Also, please accommodate our guests as best you can and help us," he motioned to the rest of the teachers, "welcome them to another wonderful year at Hogwarts.  Now, let the feast begin," he finished waving his arms.  Everyone looked to the tables to find nothing had changed.  Dumbledore cleared his throat and again said, "Let the feast begin."  Still, nothing happened.  "Excuse me for a minute," he said taking a bow before walking out the nearest door.

            A thick chattering immediately broke out amongst everyone.  Harry caught glimpses of conversations including such things as: 'why hasn't the feast started?', 'what do you suppose that Andranos did?  Do you think it has anything to do with the food not appearing?', and 'I don't like the way this year is starting out'.  About fifteen minutes later, Dumbledore came back in and stood at his seat and said, "Now, let the feast begin."  At this, the doors opened and a virtual army of house elves entered, carrying enormous platters piled with food.  They just seamed to come and come, but Harry verbally theorized that they were just dropping off a platter and then running of to the kitchens for another one.  It took some twenty minutes for them to fill the tables, clearing the candles off them and the floor in the process.  Even as they were bringing the food out, people were filling they're plates.  Everyone ate in relative peace with the occasional conversation sprouting up about they're guest who was obviously a sorcerer.

            "This Andranos should get along fabulously with Malfoy," Harry said, in-between bites of shepherd's pie, "I mean, just look at the way he acts.  And what do suppose he did to the great hall."

            "I don't know, but I've definitely got to learn how to do that," George Weasley interjected.

            "I heard him say to Dumbledore that it was a 'dis-enchant'," one of the second years said, reaching for some mashed potatoes.

            "And what about his smoking, speak of the devil," Hermione said looking off to the Slytherin table.

            Harry turned around to see what she was looking at and saw a plume of smoke rising up.  He caught sight of Professor Snape, out of the corner of his eye, getting up and walking over to the source of the smoke.  He saw him bend down and reach for something before standing up straight, looking down, talking to someone.  Andranos stood up and was inches away from him with a scowl on his face, talking to Snape.  Harry saw Andrānos hold his hand over his head, sprinkling something before he doubled in size, to approximately Hagrid's height.  "I am not the man with whom to fuck, little man," Harry heard him say, as he craned down to look at Snape.  By now, everyone had turned to see what was causing the commotion.  Andranos bent over and grabbed Snape's hand and pulled something out of it, which he held up to his mouth revealing it was a cigarette.

            "Would you please return to your normal size, Mr. Andranos," Dumbledore said, walking over to Snape.  "And please put that out, there is no smoking among students at Hogwarts."

            "Fuck your rule, and fuck this little prick," Andranos said as he spun Snape around and kicked him in the ass, sending him sprawling toward the head table.

            "I'm going to have to take five points from Slytherin for the smoking," Dumbledore said as Andranos shrunk back to normal size, "and twenty five points for the kicking of our Professor Snape."

            "We're going to have to keep an eye on this guy," Ron mumbled as he stuffed a piece of tripe in his mouth.  "Hum ean, ee trts Umbledor ike," he swallowed what was he was chewing, "he treats Dumbledore like rubbish, but then again he treats Snape like that too."  A little while later, the house elves came back out and started clearing away the trays of food, replacing them with trays of cakes, pies, iced cream, and every other dessert imaginable.  Everyone who was not stuffed to the brim, ate a sizable dessert and sat back to talk with their friends.  Shortly there after, Dumbledore sent everyone to their respective dormitories for the night.


	3. The Great Experiment

A/N:  I don't know if it's just me, but I've always pictured the majority of the classrooms in a semi-circular amphitheater type layout and I am writing the story with this in mind.

            Chapter 3

            The Great Experiment

            Harry didn't sleep well that night, something about Andranos didn't sit well with him, especially the way he treated the faculty, Dumbledore particularly.  In fact, he didn't get to sleep until 2:00 am. In the light sleep that followed, he had the classic nightmare of falling, with a gigantic Andranos' head floating in front of his face sporting a sadistic grin, laughing at him.  In the dream, the head transformed into that of Voldemort repeating, 'There's nowhere you can hide Potter, nowhere I can't find you,' in a hushed voice.  After that disturbing image, he woke up with the all-too familiar searing pain on his forehead.  

                        *                      *                      *                      *                      *                      *                      *                      *                      *

            After a hastily eaten breakfast laden heavily with conversation, Harry, Ron, and Hermione proceeded to their first class of the year, potions.  As the three entered, they saw Andranos, wearing the same cobalt blue gown, sitting near the door leaning back in his chair, snoring.  When Professor Snape walked in, he kicked Andranos' chair to wake him up.

            "I will expect you to remain awake for the entirety of the class, Mr. Andranos, irregardless of the night you've had."

            "Ya ya, just be sure to keep it short and to the point.  Don't be another breathless windbag.  Well don't just stand there cock monkey, ya gonna' teach something or do you expect us to learn through osmosis?"

            "You would be wise to watch your tone with me," Snape said as he walked up to his desk.  "Over the past four years, you have been instructed how to make some of the easier potions, this has ended.  From this year on, you will be studying the individual effects of potion ingredients, how they interact with each other, and processes of discovering new ones.  Each one of you will have a year long assignment in addition to any others in this class.  This project is either original potion research, or the creation of a useful potion as yet unknown to wizarding society as well as how to replicate it.  Yes Mr. Andranos?"

            "I guess I'm all done then, Mr. Teacher Man," Andranos said holding up a small bottle.

            "And what exactly is that?"

            "This?  This is one teaspoon of calcinized dragon's esophagus boiled into 3 cups of water distilled from Ogre mucous and fermented in a carrion crawler stomach for one month.  I would love to show you what it does, would you care to volunteer?"

            "Er…"

            But before Snape could answer, Andranos stood up and walked to the front of the room.  He bowed deeply to the class before taking a long swig from the bottle.  He turned to Snape and took in a deep breath.  The potions master leapt back as an eight foot flame shot out of Andranos' mouth, setting his robes on fire.  Snape immediately began screaming as he ran for the door, pieces of flaming cloth trailing behind him as he rounded out of sight.  Andranos pulled out a cigarette and lit it off some of Snape's robes as he walked out the door saying, "Class is dismissed then?"

            Dumbledore walked in a short while later and addressed the class with surprisingly pleasant tone, "Professor Snape will be indisposed for the remainder of the lesson and you are all free to adjourn, and I suggest to library until your next class.  Has anyone seen Andranos?  I would like a word with him."

              Hermione went strait to the library, with Harry and Ron close behind, to start on her project while most everyone else went to their respective dormitories.  Harry and Ron spent their time talking about how nasty the burns probably were and how long until they would be healed, Hermione however, spent her time leafing through potion encyclopedias occasionally looking back to hurumph Harry.  When the bell rang, they looked at their schedules to see where they heading, "Oh joy, History of Magic.  But it's in a different room, and we have it again on Thursday in the same room as last year," Hermione pointed out as they walked down the halls.

            When they got to the room, they took their seats in the last row and made themselves comfortable for another boring session of goblin rebellions.  The starting bell came and went and Binns was nowhere to be seen.  A full ten minutes passed before a silver colored doorway appeared in the front of the room startling the class.  After a few moments, Andranos stepped out of it, letting it close behind him.  He looked at the class with a sense of anger written across his face before walking over to the chalkboard.  He picked up a piece of chalk and started drawing a series of strange symbols on the board and said, "Satou yut yukusa kasa supa sumyak sut sut santou gershk sun," and continued speaking what seamed an endless trail of gibberish and nonsense.  He paused after a few minutes and looked back to see the look of bewilderment on the students faces.  He glanced to his right and picked a necklace off the desk and started babbling again as he put it around his neck, "Kak sungamasuto seupo frentou sato…but I seem to have forgotten to don my translator amulet.  Let me clarify a few things right now, as I can tell you don't know by the look on your faces.  First of all, I, am the teacher of this class and although I have not been given the authority to dole out detentions, or to add or subtract points from your houses, I would appreciate if you would pay attention and not disrupt my lessons."  At this point he extended two fingers to the doors, which flew off their hinges, soared across the room and splintered against the wall.  "Second, your ghostly professor Binns teaches you history of WIZARD magic.  When I was assigned to come here, I was given certain duties to perform, one of them, among other things, is to instruct you in history of SORCERER magic.  Third, I do not now, nor have I ever spoken or understood a word of English.  I was given this," he said putting the necklace under his robes, "which will translate whatever I say so that any human, half or full, within ear-shot will understand it.  Likewise, it will translate whatever any human, half or full, is saying so that I can understand it.  And last of all, I must say that although I bear no malice to miss Granger and her kind, I have a dislike for Mr. Weasley and his kind, and a hate for Mr. Finnigan and his kind.  I am of course referring to the treatment of the elves in this realm.  Miss Granger's kind are, how you say, 'muggle born' and therefore had no knowledge of the slaving of elves.  Mr. Weasley and is kind have the knowledge of how the elves are treated and have chosen not to do anything about it.  While Mr. Finnigan and his ilk," he scoffed at this point, "OWN an elf.  I'm sorry, ownED an elf.  And the laws you have made, 'no elf shall posses or use a wand'.  Well, that particular law and all those discriminating elves from wizards have been eradicated upon the signing of the treatise between our cultures, as well as 'all elves shall be set free no later that January the first or their owner shall be put to death as many times as is necessary until said elves have been freed'."

            Ron leaned over and whispered to Hermione, "I guess this means S.P.E.W. isn't needed any more."

            "Thank you for interrupting me Mr. Weasley, even though I asked you quite nicely not to," Andranos said craning his head over at him, "but I will let you off with a warning this time.  Now, as I was saying, I disapprove of the way that you have treated elves hear for the following reason: you owe your very existence to them, but I will come to that in a second."  He walked back up to the board and pointed at his nonsensical scribblings before continuing.  "Your earliest writings date back to six thousand years ago.  This is at around the same time as we introduced you to the world.  I am of course referring to The Great Experiment as it is known.  That is to endow humans with the natural abilities of elves.  We, sorcerers that is, created a, well, a virus that we released across the world that would accumulate in the soul of a human.  It is this virus that enables you to use a wand and perform minor sorcery, however, it must accumulate in a sufficient quantity before a person's birth to take effect.  It is not transferred in a constant rate, the accumulation of it from one's parents depends almost entirely on luck and chance.  This virus is built up over a person's life and may, on occasion, add to one's magical prowess.  But, like I said before, it must achieve a critical level BEFORE birth in order to have any effect at all in life.  In theory, as has happened numerous times over the centuries, it is possible to have two people who's souls are completely saturated with this virus and are powerful beyond understanding spawn a child who has no discernable magical abilities what-so-ever.  Likewise, to have two people who wouldn't know a wand if it bit them on the ass have a child with immense abilities.  Now I know this must all be a lot to take in at once, but the sooner you understand that this is all true, the sooner you will realize how much better than you sorcerers are.  If anyone still has any doubts about this by the end of the week, come and see me before our next session and I will supply you with a fully documented record of both the preparations for the experiment and the experiment in progress throughout the millennia."

            "Oh great, another book for Hermione to read and quote," Ron said under his breath.

            Andranos walked up to Ron and placed his thumb on his forehead while letting out a long 'Shhhhh!'. after which he walked back up to the front of the room and said, "now I asked you nicely once, Mr. Weasley, but I hope this will show you that I am not fucking around.  Don't worry, it should wear off in about six hours.  And don't try to counteract it, for it will only make it last longer.  'Silence' is tricky like that."  Almost as soon as these last words escaped his lips, the bell rang and class was dismissed. 


	4. A Ghastly Evening

A/N:  Here's a bit of trivia for all you readers out there: Following logic, what year was Harry Potter born in?  The answer and my evidence in my next posting.  

Chapter 4

A Ghastly Evening

It took Ron all of about three minutes to realize he was no longer capable of speech and it took him no more than thirty seconds after that to realize he was incapable of making any sound at all.  Lunch was marked by conversations about how delusional Andranos was, how much of an asshole he was, and the dishes shaking after Ron's fist soundlessly pounded the table in an effort for the rest of them to read the notes he kept scribbling out.  Half way through the meal, Harry spotted Professor Moody walking through a side door, holding a raccoon by the scruff of it's neck, and straight over to where Dumbledore was sitting.  He dropped it to the floor and pointed his wand at it, moments later Andranos rose from the floor.  Moody had a few heated words with the headmaster before McGonagall and later Snape joined the fray.  After a minute Dumbledore stood up looking more angry than he usually did but not exceptionally so.  Snape, Moody, and McGonagall began barking at him in an obvious fury but in words Harry couldn't hear while Dumbledore stood with a stern look.

Andranos began to sporadically bark back at them but it had no impact on the verbal assault he was given.  He moved his left hand to cover his right ear and whipped it away and held it above his head.  He took in a deep breath and his torso lurched forward before a deafening roar filled the hall, sending everybody away from Andranos covering their ears.  The roar paused for only a few moments as Andranos drew another breath.  Suddenly, Dumbledore's head burst in to flames and as Harry looked around, everyone's hair was on fire.  When the roar stopped, the fire on everyone's hair went out to reveal no damage, not even so much as a blackening.  Andranos voice filled the hall as if a Howler saying, "If my intentions were as you insist, surely I would have done it a bit more clandestine," he paused for a minute to look at Moody," and if you ever do that again, worse things will happen to you.  Now get the fuck out of my way Mood Man."  The former Auror put his hand on Andranos' shoulder and said something Harry couldn't hear.  The sorcerer's response to this was that he stretched both arms out in front of him, palms facing Moody, fingers pointed up.  He then pulled his right arm back to his side with his palms still facing Moody and then suddenly jerked if forward.  Moody flew across the room, rising up a few feet and slammed against the wall, sliding down when he hit it, apparently unconscious.  Andranos jerked his head to look at Snape and McGonagall who immediately parted to let him through.  He left the room with no further incident and was followed a few minutes later by Dumbledore.

That, coincidentally, is exactly the way to describe the rest of the week: no further incident.  Neither Harry, Ron, nor Hermione saw even the slightest hint of Andranos.  Even so, Harry decided to send a letter to 'Snuffles' describing in detail what he saw Andranos do, asking him for advice and generally what he should do about the situation.  Yes, all was quiet, well, quiet as Hogwarts usually is.  Hermione spent a lot of time in the library, surprise surprise, and when asked what she was doing, she said she was looking for references to sorcerers.  On Saturday evening, after she threw a fit about not finding more than the meagerest bit about sorcerers, Hermione started pumping all of the wizard born kids in the Gryffindor common room for information.

There was a loud bang, which gave everyone a startle, followed by two more bangs.  Three more bangs could be heard a minute later that was emanating from the entrance.  Hermione went to open it muttering, "Now what has Malfoy done to him this time."  Not more than two seconds after hearing the door creak open, there was a scream and Hermione came running back into the room and tripped over a chair holding her wand in her hand.  A fetid odor filled the tower as a hideous…thing walked in.  It was about four feet tall with grotesquely long arms and short legs.  It's mouth was far too large to have ever closed completely and was filled with needle-like teeth.  The tongue was whipping around inside and was obviously no more than an inch wide and at least a foot long, forked at the end.  It had sickening gray skin that seemed to be covered in a thin slime, while its head, as well as its entire body was completely lacking in even the smallest trace of hair.  It wore a feeble and worn loincloth covered in filth and in one of its clawed hands held a piece of parchment.  The creature walked to the middle of the room and stared at the fireplace with it's dead, and hollow looking eyes and said in a wispy voice, "Paw…Ter.  Gray…Jer."

Harry stood up and said, "I'm Potter."  The creature turned and limped over to him.  It pushed the parchment at Harry who took and read it aloud.

I would appreciate it if Mr. Harry Potter and

Ms. Hermione Granger please follow the

bearer of this note.

It wasn't signed, and it was written in what looked like Malfoy's handwriting.  Hermione's immediately reaction was, "I'm not following this thing anywhere!"  As soon as she said this, the creature grabbed Harry and latched onto his wrist, jumped across the room with Harry in tow and did the same thing to Hermione.  It immediately bolted out the portal, dragging them behind him.  Ron ran after it trying to throw hexes and curses at it.  Harry shouted out for him to go and get help, but it was moving so fast down the halls the he didn't know where the help should come to.  Doors flew by as the thing dragged them through the corridors and it became quite clear that it was carrying them to the dungeons.  Ron set off to get help as he thought he saw McGonagall going through a doorway down the hall.

They eventually came to a stop in front of a door deep in the dungeons, the beast snarling as he stood in front of it for a moment before slamming it's head against the door three times.  Harry could hear rustling inside before the door opened and Filch stuck his head out.  He looked up and down the corridor and then down to them.  Harry had wanted help but Filch was not what he had in mind.  He and Filch stared at each other before an evil grin crept across his face, "Bit of a spot you're in, are you?"

"Don't just stand there Filch, let them in," a voice could be heard from within.  "And you may go, see you Monday."  The caretaker stepped aside to let them in and walked out of the room.  "And shut the door!"  The door shut behind them on it's own.  "Be with you in a minute."

Harry looked around the room and was immediately reminded of the drug labs seen in movies.  It had a huge granite table in the middle of the enormous room with beakers, flasks, condensers, burners and just about everything else one would imagine in a chemist's laboratory.  They had bubbling liquids all through them, with steam bursting out in several places.  At he foot of the table, there was a large chest that smelled strongly of dung right beside a large oven made of bricks.  The walls were covered in shelves filled thousands of books and in those that weren't, there were all sorts of strange looking trinkets and devices.  On the walls that didn't have any shelves, there were innumerable cages holding weird and exotic looking animals.  Harry could have sworn he saw a skeleton hanging in the corner.  "My god, Doctor Frankenstein is living in the basement," Hermione said as she glanced around.  The creature that brought them there was standing just in front of the door, staring at the wall, stupidly.

Andranos walked in through another doorway with a white cream covering his head and a straight razor in his hand.  "I see you decided not to heed my note," he said as he came over to them.  He turned to face the beast, slapped it hard across the face and yelled, "Slave!  Release Them!"  It let go of them immediately and slunk off into a corner.  Andranos walked over to a mirror and began to shave his head as he started talking to Harry.  "Please, don't mind my Ghast, he wont do anything unless he gets really pissed off or I tell him to.  Now the reason I asked you two to come down here, is that I would like you to tell me what you can about this world of yours.  Particularly, tell me what you can about He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named."

With a fire in her eyes, Hermione stepped forward and said, "I would have thought that you of all people would not be afraid to say his name, and why don't you just ask the Syltherins?"

"That's just the thing, I don't know what his name is.  I've only ever heard people refer to him as He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and You-Know-Who and as for the Slytherins, let me see how I can say thins simply and effectively, they are a bunch of pricks."

This time, Harry stepped up and said, "His name is Lord Voldemort, and he is a Foul, Evil Dark wizard."  He then proceeded to describe to Andranos, in as much detail as he could manage, about Voldemort's exploits.  When he was finished, all Andranos said in response was "Hmmm.  Shows promise."

Just then, Professor Snape burst through the door, didn't even notice Harry and Hermione standing in the room, charged right up Andranos and said in a fury, "What have I told you about letting that creature loose in the school!  The headmaster is searching the entire building after Weasley burst into his office screaming about that thing bursting into Gryffindor tower and snatching two students!"

Andranos put two fingers up to his temple and mumbled a few words before Snape stumbled back, let out a yelp and ran out of the room.  The sorcerer walked over to the door and pointed down the hallway before yelling, "Slave!  Sic Him!"  He started to make his way back over to where he was when they came in and said, "Thank you for the information, you may go now."


	5. The Evening Visitor

            A/N:  Following logic, Harry Potter was born in 1980.  My evidence:  In Harry's second year he attended Nearly Headless Nick's 500th deathday party.  Sir Nicholas said he died on October 31, 1492.  This would make his 500th deathday party in 1992.  Harry was 12 in his second year so all that's left is to subtract 12 years from 1992 and you get 1980 as the year Harry Potter was born.  This of course would make September first, on which day Harry always gets on the Hogwarts Express, a Friday in his fifth year (1995).  As for this story, he went onto the train on September third (a Sunday) so that the first day of classes were on a Monday.

            A/N:  I have a great understanding of weapons and I will refer to several very specific ones.  If you (the reader) find you are not familiar with whatever it is that I am talking about, then I suggest you try the following web sites:

            www.museumreplicas.com

            www.atlantacutlery.com

they have wonderful descriptions as well as, but more importantly, pictures.  This reference is by no means a plug for this company (museum replicas is owned my Atlanta cutlery).

            Chapter 5

            The Evening Visitor

            Harry and Hermione eventually found their way back to Gryffindor tower after being stopped by several teachers to explain to them what happened, meeting up with Ron on the way.  When they got back to the common room they immediately noticed a small glass vial suspended in mid air in the middle of the room and Andranos standing behind it.  "Hermione's immediate reaction was, "How did You get in here?" and a "What is that?"

            "Well," Andranos said, "to answer your questions in no particular order, that is a vial of everlasting water, and I got in here through a dimension door."            "Okay, what is a dimension door?" Hermione replied.

            "A dimension door?  I'll show you," he said as he held up a small brass doorknob.  He tapped it thrice upon the door as he said "_suntumba shanktoa_."  Where he tapped the doorknob, a silver colored doorway rose up from the floor exactly like the one in Andranos' history of magic class.  It had the same appearance as water when viewed from beneath the surface and emitted a faint humming.  As Andranos stepped through it, it rippled around him before falling back to the floor and disappeared.  Harry felt a tap on his shoulder and spun around to see Andranos grinning back at him.

            "So it's like Apparating then?" Ron said.

            "No.  It's Not like what you call Apparating.  You cannot Apparate, or teleport, as sorcerers call it, within Hogwarts grounds.  When I came here, I had a few books translated into American.  One of then was 'Hogwarts, A History', I strongly recommend that you burn it.  No, a dimension door creates what the…Muggles, I think you call them, what they would call a wormhole.  It will open up a doorway that will allow me to instantaneously travel from one place to another as long as I've seen the destination before.  With someone of my experience, I can travel within one league of where a start at."

            "Okay, but why are you here?" Harry ventured.

            Andranos reached into his bag and pulled out a rather large dagger.  It had rubies and emeralds, along with a number of other jewels encrusted in the sheath and hilt, with a large sapphire in the pommel.  He withdrew it from its sheath and brandished it for them to see it's blade, which looked like the typical roman dagger, except for the fact that the blade was translucent and had a beep blue hue to it.  He slipped it back into it's housing and held it out with both hands as he bowed his head slightly saying, "My penguin bids I bear this gift to you."

            Harry reached forward to take it but as he did so, Andranos furled his lips and said "_yon supe!_", at which point Harry shot back against the wall.  Ron slowly put his hand out and gently wrapped his hands around it.  He lifted it up and looked at it with an intensely puzzled look on his face.  "For ME?"

            "It is yours, Ronald Weasley of Hogwarts.  I also have this for you," Andranos replied pulling a fair sized chest out of his bag.  He opened it to show that it was full to the top with cigarettes.  Andranos took one out and put it in his mouth closing the box with his other hand.  Then held out his fist and flicked up his thumb as if he was flipping a coin.  As soon as he did this, a small flame danced on the tip of his thumb, which he used to light the cigarette, blowing it out afterwards.

            Andranos held the chest and the lit one out for Ron to take but was confronted with a hurried "No thanks.  I don't smoke."

            "You dare refuse the penguin's gift?"

            With a nudge in the back from a frightened looking Hermione, he accepted them.  Ron put the cigarette up to his mouth and inhaled.  He coughed and sputtered as the hot smoke ripped it's way down his throat.  He held it up saying, "Thanks," screwing up his face in the process.

            "The penguin personally insisted on giving each member of your family a year's supply of marijuana fungus.  I have already given your brothers and your sister theirs."

            "That doesn't smell like marijuana to me," Hermione blurted out.

            "How do you know what marijuana smells like?" Harry let out without thinking.

            "Ahem!  I don't know how you would know what it smells like," Andranos said, pre-empting their argument before it even got started, "it doesn't grow in this realm except in very remote regions.  In any case, I must be leaving now so please tell your brothers that I want them to explain to you about those cigarettes.  Good bye."  He walked over to the fireplace and opened a dimension door and left.

            Just moments after their visitor left, Fred and George came bounding down the steps, laughing hysterically, each holding a half smoked cigarette.  "Hey," they said in concert, "I see he gave you some too."  They looked at each other for a second and began laughing again.

            "Why are you smoking that," Hermione said as she walked across the room.  "He said that it's marijuana, do you know what that stuff does to you?"

            "Nothing compared to this stuff," they replied before breaking into another fit of laughter.  

"Andranos told us he wants us to explain to you what they do," Fred said.

"Ya, he mentioned that he knew he wouldn't have time to explain it," added George.

"Well, it's quite simple really."

"Yes, quite simple."

"Unless you're a total git, of course."

"Well anyways, he said that they are made from a rare fungus called marijuana."

"Seeing about what they do, I don't think it's the same marijuana as we know it."

"Funny thing was that no matter how much we asked, he wouldn't tell us where it grows"

"Probably didn't want us bunging off and nicking some more."

"He also said that they were from his "penguin's" private stores."

"Probably some kind of American slang."

"Yes, but what DO they do?" Ron said looking very anxious.

"We're getting to that.  Oh ya, he also said that these are only available to the upper class."

"Ya, said they were too expensive for any but the wealthy to afford."

"Anyway, he said that smoking one down to the butt will amplify the power of the spells you cast by great amounts."

"Here, watch this," Fred said as he pulled out his wand.  "_Relashio!_" he shouted, pointing his wand at the fireplace.  Instead of a few sparks coming out of the end, it looked like someone shot off a fireworks display in the common room.  As soon as Ron saw this, he started smoking his cigarette with fervor he never knew he had.

"Oh," George added, "he said that the effects last for about 12 hours.  Say, what's that other thing you got in your hand, Ron?"

"It's some dagger Andranos gave me."

"He gave George and me a scimitar each, with all kinds of jewels on them.  And, get this, he gave Ginny a set of katars that he said were made of bone."

They went up and got their swords, as well as Ginny, and showed them to Harry, Hermione, and Ron.  The six of them sat around for the rest of the weekend examining the weapons in detail and discussing why Andranos had given them to them in the first place.


	6. American History

A/N:  I have decided to alter the name of the story from 'Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Touch' to 'Harry Potter and the Fate of Hogwarts' because I don't feel the former adequately describes the story.  It has nothing to do with the fact that I was given a suggestion to change it in order to increase the number of people reading it.

A/N:  If anyone is wondering what a Katar is, I will tell you how to draw a crude but convincing looking one, all you need is a pencil a piece of paper and a ruler.  First, draw a triangle with a 4-inch side and 2 nine and one quarter inch sides.  The 4-inch side is the base.  Draw a line on both ends of the base that are perpendicular to it, these lines are 7 inches long.  2 inches along these lines, from the base of the triangle, draw a thick bar that joins them.  If you have done all that correctly, you are now looking at a very crude but recognizable rendition of a Katar.  That thick line you drew is the handle, and it is gripped like a pair of knuckles or a punching dagger.  

            Chapter 6

            American History

            Harry awoke Monday morning to a crack of thunder.  Glancing out the window, he heard wind howling around the castle, but couldn't see much through the think fog that blanketed everything.  He thought nothing of it as he drifted back to sleep.  He woke again as a veritable sheet of water slashed over him.  Jumping out of bed, Harry saw the other boys were up and doing drying spells on their beds, apparently having been roused the same way.  He quickly closed the window that had blown open and joined the others in drying his bed.  When his bed was dry, he no longer felt sleepy and decided to get dressed and go down to breakfast.

            When he got to the table, he found Ron already sitting there, trying to finish some Defense Against the Dark Arts homework that he put off all weekend, Hermione sitting beside him with her nose in a book.  Harry sat down opposite them and pulled up a bowl of porridge, and began to slowly eat some of it.  After a few minutes of absolutely nothing happening, the mail arrived.  A pair of barn owls swooped down and dropped a rolled up parchment at both Harry and Hermione.  Harry pushed his away to read later, knowing full well it was this morning's edition of the Daily Prophet, while Hermione unrolled her's immediately.  Almost instantly, Harry saw her eyes grow wide and her jaw drop as the color drained out of her face.  Harry unrolled his copy and looked at it.  The headline caught his attention and compelled him to read the front-page story without thinking.

SIRIUS BLACK CAUGHT

Investigators at the Department for Magical Law

Enforcement caught Sirius Black, the elusive 

Azkaban escapee, on Friday in the Manchester

area.  Citizens of the town became aware of a snowy

owl that made frequent visits and the investigators 

were called in to ask the owner of the owl to please

either buy a native type of owl or put a charm on it to

make it less noticeable.  Much to their surprise, they

encountered the convict hiding in an abandoned house.

He surrendered when he saw the officials surrounding…

            Harry couldn't read anymore of the article.  Feeling very nauseated, he got up from the table and ran for the bathroom.

*          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *

            Harry missed the first half of potions, being in the hospital wing, Madam Pomfrey refusing to let him leave until she was satisfied there was nothing wrong with him.  He gave his note to Professor Snape as to where he was and sat down.  He sat there spaced out in disbelief that his godfather was caught and would any probably be kissed by one of the dementors.  He didn't hear Snape droning on and on about porcupine quills and cobra fangs and an endless list of other ingredients and what their basic effects were, despite repeated blows to his ribs from Hermione's elbow to pay attention.  Harry was only dimly aware of when the bell rang and proceeded to Andranos' History of Magic class.  He sat down and waited for the bell, which arrived shortly there after.  For the second time in as many weeks Andranos was late for his own class.  Ron and Hermione tried to console Harry with limited success, that is, enough to bring him back into reality.  The three were startled when they heard a low-pitched, but loud nonetheless, scream ring out from somewhere above them.  A few seconds later, a dimension door opened at the front of the room with Andranos stepping out of it.

            "I apologize for my tardiness, I had something I had to deal with.  Now, although I only do this class for fifth, sixth, and seventh year students, doing it for each house individually it is seriously cutting into my time.  So your headmaster, in his infinite wisdom, has agreed to permit me to do two houses at a time.  I have decided to pair Hufflepuff with Ravenclaw, and to pair Gryffindor with Slytherin."

            Harry looked to the other side of the room and saw, sure enough, the Slytherin fifth years sitting there.

            "Now, I will just jump right into the lesson.  I come from the country of America, which is one of five countries on the continent of warts.  So named because when it was discovered, it was believed that all the warts spilled in wars ran to the bottom of the planet like when water is dripped on a globe and runs to the bottom.  America is run by an index system of government and ruled over by a trio of penguins, to ensure that no one man has absolute power over the entire country.  America's monetary system is based on coins of rubber, wood, and sugar, each one being one inch across and one sixteenth of an inch thick, with no decoration.  Ten sugar go into one wood, and ten wood go into one rubber.  The penguins that rule America are always sorcerers so therefore it could be said that America is ruled by sorcerers.  For those in the magic profession, the most precious commodity is the marijuana fungus, which grows in the form of a mushroom.  Marijuana can fetch prices of up to one thousand rubber pieces per pound.  To put this in perspective for you, seventy percent of the population of America makes only five rubber pieces per week.  Yes Miss Granger?"

            Harry only now noticed that Hermione had had her hand up in the air for a minute or so.

            "Excuse me, but I don't think that marijuana is a fungus."

            "Of course it's a fungus.  It grows in this form," he said as he drew a crude but clear looking mushroom on the chalkboard, "and this is a fungus, isn't it."

            "Well maybe your just saying the wrong word then, are you sure it's called marijuana?"

            "Yes, of course I'm sure…could you please slowly repeat the word 'marijuana'?"

            Hermione did as she was asked, repeating the word 'marijuana' over and over again.  Andranos pulled his amulet out from under his shirt and away from his chest.  As soon as he did this, his lips furled and he bared his teeth while his eyes grew wide as he let out an animalistic growl.  He put his hand up sharply to signal Hermione to stop.

            "If you will excuse me," he said with an obvious fury in his voice, "I must attend to something."  When he finished talking he walked over to the closet and opened the door to reveal nothing in it except a large mirror.  He placed his hand on the mirror and almost immediately a white glow quickly crept up his hand.  Once it had encompassed him completely, it subsided, but instead of just the glow disappearing, Andranos disappeared with it.  When it had finished, he was gone.  Upon closer inspection, Harry thought the mirror looked remarkably like the mirror of Erised.  Aside from conversations that sprang up immediately, little happened in the room for the next ten minutes.  After which, the entire process happened again, only in reverse.  When Andranos stepped away, he was covered head to toe in transparent but visible shiny goo.  He had his dagger in his left hand and both were covered in blood.  He glanced down at his weapon, and put it in its sheath.

            "I'm sorry for that, but it appears that before I left the Fyndow Academy, one of my colleagues thought it would be funny to tamper with my translator amulet.  I have acquired a different one.  One that functions as it is supposed to.  Now, since I don't know what I have said that was incorrect, I will begin from the beginning."

            "I come from the country of Dymora, which is one of five countries on the continent of blood.  So named because when it was discovered, it was believed that all the blood spilled in wars ran to the bottom of the planet like when water is dripped on a globe and runs to the bottom.  Dymora is run by a feudal system of government and ruled over by a trio of emperors, to ensure that no one man has absolute power over the entire country.  Dymora's monetary system is based on coins of gold, silver, and copper, each one being one inch across and one sixteenth of an inch thick, with no decoration.  Ten copper go into one silver, and ten silver go into one gold.  The emperors that rule Dymora are always sorcerers so therefore it could be said that Dymora is ruled by sorcerers.  For those in the magic profession, the most precious commodity is the Kandaa fungus, which grows in the form of a mushroom.  Kandaa can fetch prices of up to one thousand gold pieces per pound.  To put this in perspective for you, seventy percent of the population of Dymora makes only five gold pieces per week.

            "The capitol city of Dymora, Tishanga, is located along the northern coast.  The entire city has been carved out of a small mountain, and I don't mean that is composed of caves.  I mean that the mountain has been carved down into contemporary houses and buildings, with the cooperative effort of dwarves and goblins.  This, by the way, is the only known instance of goblins and dwarves working together in our records.  They did so for a mutually desirable goal: money.  An enormous amount of money was spent in making Tishanga.  Of course this is only an assumption, seeing how it took place so long ago, and covered such a long period of time.  The city was finished fifteen hundred years ago and took seven hundred years to make.  The city is laid out somewhat like a bulls-eye.  The emperors' keep in the center, the nobility surrounding it.  Around that is the wealthy, then the guild buildings mingled in with the shops and stores.  And surrounding all that are the city walls and gates.  In the 1500 years that it has been around, there has, of course, been a shortage of room in the city and there have been expansions outside of the walls.  Whenever there is need for it, and occasionally there is, the occupants of these expansions are welcome to take shelter in the city.  Tishanga has a forest within half a league of most of it, the ocean around the rest of it.  The forest cannot be cleared away because it is under the rule of a group of elves.  Even though there are several particularly nasty tribes of orcs living in it.

            "Something that I should probably say before continuing is that Dymora is located in an alternate dimension.  I am not in the mood to explain it to you thoroughly, so I will only say that my world and your world are two objects that share the same space at the same time and are completely unaware of each other's existence.  Now, I will continue.

 "A point of interest in recent news is that your government has reached an understanding with our government.  This concerning the lack of trust you have in the denizens that guard over your prison system.  So, we are taking over your prison system.  All inmates that are currently imprisoned have already been transferred to Dymora, and all newly acquired inmates will be turned over to us, this would include all newly sentenced people, escaped prisoners, stuff like that.  People with what we would call misdemeanor crimes, thing like thievery, rape, will be put into our prisons.  People with more serious offences that are serving anything short of life or under sentence of death, will be performing hard labor.  And finally, people serving life sentences or are to be put to death, will be sold into slavery.  Case in point, one of the emperors has died recently and we are preparing to lay him to rest.  Several of these 'slaves' will be turned into lichs, to guard the tomb."

            Harry glanced over and saw Hermione sitting back in her chair, eyes wide, with a complete look of terror on her face.  'What's a lich?' he mouthed to her.

            'You don't want to know,' she mouthed back.

            "Excuse me," Harry said putting his hand up.  "But what is a lich?"

            "Well," Andranos answered, "a lich is one type of an assortment of many undead creatures.  It's most noticeable quality is its tendency to kill its target with powerful magic.  To put simply, a lich is an undead wizard."

            "But what if the prisoner is innocent," Harry ventured.

            "Don't you trust in your own justice system?"

            "Quite frankly, no I don't."

            "That's too bad, one should have faith in their government.  Now it should be noted…" Andranos stopped as a gong was heard from outside.  He slowly turned around and headed over to the window.  He opened it up, letting rain come flooding through it, and gazed out.  He put his hands over his eyes and muttered, "_Sitoocamousha sitookusha, sitoocamousha, demookikla_."  He let his hands drop away and looked out again.  Another gong sounded and he just stayed where he was, transfixed by whatever he saw out the window.  He closed it sharply and looked back at the class.  Harry nearly fell out of his seat when he saw that Andranos' eyes were glowing red.  "If you will excuse me, I need to have a word with your headmaster."  He quickly opened a dimension door and disappeared.

            Ten minutes passed before he returned through another dimension door.  After stepping out of it, he informed the class that, given how much time was left, they might as well leave for whatever they had next.  After saying this, he dimension doored out again.  Harry got up and made his way to Defense Against the Dark Arts with the rest of the Gryffindors.  He stopped when he heard Lavender scream.  He pushed past to see what the problem was and saw professor Moody with his hands tied behind his back and a noose around his neck, clearly dead.  He was hanging from one of the ceiling rafters with a piece of parchment pinned to his chest bearing two big words:

            CONSTANT

            VIGILANCE


	7. The Beginning

A/N:  I realized in writing this chapter that the Gryffindors had 3 lessons back-to-back when they should have gone to lunch immediately after Andranos' class.  To put it simply, I fucked up.  In my zeal to put in the death of Moody, I fucked up.  But then again, I've seen countless more fuck ups in some of the other stories I have read, including one in which Harry is going into his fifth year and Dumbledore says in the beginning that the third floor corridor on the right hand side is off limits.  In retrospect of my fuck up, it is a small fuck up.  And most of you probably wouldn't have noticed it unless I told you it was there.  For the sake of argument, lets assume that Harry and his classmates went to lunch after Andranos' class but before they went to Moody's.  It doesn't impact the story that much anyway.

            Chapter 7

            The Beginning

             Harry left his flabbergasted classmates at the door to the late Professor Moody's class and ran straight for the stone gargoyle on the second floor, which led to the headmaster's office.  When he got there, Professor Dumbledore, with Andranos close behind, greeted him.  "Professor, come quick," Harry shouted whilst catching his breath.

            "What, is someone hurt?" Andranos said with a worried expression on his face before Dumbledore could answer.

            "Yes, its Professor Moody."

            "Oh that," Andranos replied.  "Its nothing to be worried about"

            "What do you mean 'its nothing to be worried about'?  He's DEAD!"

            "Is he by any change hanging from the ceiling in a sort of, noosey rope motif?"

            "Yeah, but…"

            "Then don't worry about it."

            "Harry, Harry," Dumbledore cut in, "please go and tell your classmates to assemble in the great hall.  There are a few announcements that have to be made."

            Harry did as he was asked and then proceeded to the great hall with his fellows.  When he got there, he was surprised to see the entire school piling into it.  After a few minutes, the teachers came in through a side door, followed by Andranos.  They quickly took their seats and the sorcerer stood in front of the staff table, in front of Dumbledore, holding a crystal ball in his hand.

            "I know that we have called you all from your classes," Dumbledore began, "but there are few things that you need to know that cannot wait.  You may have heard a gong sounding outside very recently.  Andranos has informed myself and the other teachers to its significance.  Hogwarts has been laid under siege by Lord Voldemort.  Andranos will elaborate."

            "Thank you.  The Fyndow academy is a school devoted to training battle mages.  I have consulted my superiors at the academy and been informed that a group of men, one of them fitting Lord Vodemort's description, hired three battle sorcerers from them a few days ago.  One Invoker, one Conjurer, and a Transmuter.  I have also been informed that they have hired a necromancer.  The gong that sounded was part of a ritual to notify the enemy that they are under siege.  The four sorcerers are highly trained and have entered into mercenary contract with Lord Voldemort.  The siege at this phase will be composed of the continuous thick fog you see out there now, as well as a heavy storm with TARGETED lightning strikes.  You can also expect to see probes being sent in.  Simply put, if you are exposed, They Will Kill You."

            "Thank you Andranos," Dumbledore said.  "For this reason, all outside activities, including quidditch, have been canceled indefinitely for your own protection.   We would send you home, but there is no way we could do that without going through the sieged area.  While you come to grips with this turn of events, classes will be suspended for the remainder of today and the whole of tomorrow."  When he finished, he motioned that the students were free to go and promptly stood up and left the hall through the side door that he came in.  The rest of the teachers soon followed him while Andranos dimension doored out.

            Harry, Ron and Hermione sat in their seats while most of the other students filed out.  "Could I have a word with you?"  Harry spun around to see Andranos standing behind him leaning over.

            "Yeah, I guess so."

            Andranos opened another dimension door and stood beside it.  "A word with you, in my lab."

            "I don't suppose Ron and Hermione could come too?"

            "I suppose so," he said as he opened two more dimension doors.  Ron got up and stepped through the first one and it closed behind him.  Then Hermione got up and stepped through the second one, which also closed as soon as she stepped into it.  Harry slowly stood and examined the doorway.  The humming of it made him feel surprisingly relaxed.  "How long are you going to fucking stand there?"  Harry finally decided to step into it.  When he did, he was amazed to see Andranos' lab as soon as his face broke the surface.  He glanced around to see Ron and Hermione already standing there examining all the little trinkets on the shelves.  Another dimension door opened seconds after Harry arrived from which Andranos stepped out of.

"Now, for what I was saying; the imperial slave masters found something unusual while they were sorting new subjects."  As he slowly said this, Andranos crossed the room and placed his crystal ball on a little stand, which lay upon a table in one corner of the room.  He said _Seenuko-dapada_ as he rested his hands on the ball.  Immediately, a large, male, bald head emerged from the crystal ball and floated at eye level to Andranos.  "I have him with me now," Andranos said addressing the head.

"Seenyak oulakwega semyooka semtotu frynakupu seenak, quakee nukya vantoon," the head said back to him, rolling its eyes occasionally.

"That's fine do you have him with you."

"Gerok zemuk seenakua seenakua nee-shum, Fyndow."

"I don't give a shit what they say at the academy.  Besides, now is not the time to discuss it.  Do you have him with you or do I have to come over there myself and get him personally?"

"Seenakuma!  Nakya kwaku jeanarok geish shituma Natou lak feen-nakaruseentarikxyl samuka nee! Finakaru simeek."

"It's about fucking time."  Andranos looked over to Harry and said, "Alright Harry, come here and place your hands on the ball."

"Why?"

"You wizards use owls to carry letters back and forth, that's how you communicate.  We sorcerers use crystal balls to channel psionic energy in order to communicate with each other directly.  Now, come over here and place your hands on the ball, there's someone there that wants to talk to you."

Harry slowly approached the ball, when he got there, he sat down at a chair Andranos drew for him and placed his hands on the sides of the crystal.  Instantly, it seemed as if the room was spinning and he felt disorientated.  When the feeling subsided he looked about to see he was sitting in a high backed wooden chair and in a room wholly different than Andranos' lab.  It was circular with wooden paneling on the walls, floor, and ceiling.  The room was devoid of doors and windows.  He glanced at he table to see the exact same crystal ball in his hands and then looked up to see his godfather sitting across the table.

"Don't take your hands off of the ball or you'll break contact," he heard Andranos say behind him.  Harry looked around but was unable to see him.  "Don't bother looking for me, you are experiencing a visual hallucination.  While the room you think you are sitting in does not exist, I can assure you the man you see across from you does."

"Harry," Sirius said to him, "are you looking for something?"

"Oh, one other thing I should say," The disembodied voice continued, "you are in a private conversation.  Your friend can't see or hear me and we can't see or hear him, but we can hear everything You are saying."

"Um, no.  I, er, was just having a look around," Harry said back to Sirius.  "I thought you were…I heard you were…I was told you would…be dead."

"No, not yet Harry."

"It's all over the papers, your being captured."

"Yes, I was sitting down to write a reply to your letter.  I saw the ministry wizards coming the house and sent Hedwig out before giving myself up.  What I Was going to say in the letter was with what you described, combined with everything I've ever heard and read about sorcerers is that they are psychotic.  I Was going to say that you should keep a close eye on this 'Andranos' and write back to me with any more news.  Well, this is no longer what I think about them. But I'll come to that in a minute.  The reason I gave myself up was that if I resisted, I figured they would kill me.  I also figured that they would have the dementors summoned to 'kiss' me, but I would find a way to escape before it could happen.  I was surprised to be confronted by a several men that looked like they were straight out of the Middle Ages, dressed in brigandines with swords around their waist.  They confiscated the wand I was using and blindfolded me.  Next thing I knew I was being led into a courtyard filled with what seemed the entire population of Azkaban, minus the dementors.  Two people, whom I found out later to be sorcerers, tried to cast a spell on me, failed, tried to cast it again, failed again, and then threw me in a cell.  They came back the next day with a woman dressed in a white linen gown.  She placed a hand on my forehead and left a minute later.  When they returned, they said that they gave their word I was free to go, and by the way, it seams it's in their religion to always keep their word, no matter what.  They gave me a bath, an enormous meal, god it was good, and a room that looked fit for royalty."

"But, I don't understand," Harry interjected.  "They set you free for no reason?  No trial?  No questions?"

"What are you talking about Harry," Andranos said.

"Yes, I'm getting to it," Sirius said to no one, looking up at the ceiling.  "Look, I'm trying to say everything important."

"Now, Harry," Andranos said, "I might be able to help with this little misunderstanding, but I would have to come in there, may I have your permission?"

"No, I'm trying to have a chat with my godfather will you please leave me alone."

"Will you please stop it!  I'm not doing anything I'm not supposed to.  No, I've already talked to him," Sirius said, again talking to nobody.  "I'm trying to stay calm, Natou, but you are really Pissing me off.  Fine.  I'm sorry about that Harry, but there's someone on this side who's trying to…it's not important.  Needless to say, I am free and you don't have to worry about me.  I can't talk anymore, I have to go.  I'm sorry Harry but I have to go, I'll talk to you later."

"Ok but, er…"

"Yes?"

"…Nothing.  Goodbye Snuffles."

"Goodbye Harry."  As soon as Sirius said this, he seamed to evaporate into a wisp of smoke.  Harry took his hands off the ball and the feeling of disorientation and the room spinning returned.  After a few moments it subsided and Harry found himself back in Andranos' lab.

"Harry," Hermione said, "did I hear you correctly?  That Sirius is alive?  That Sirius has been set free?"

Harry told her, and everyone else in the room, what Sirius had just told him.

"Now I'm as confused as you Harry.  Why would they just set him free like that," Ron said.

"I can answer that," Andranos said from where he was sitting at the table.  "Well, that woman in the white linen gown he was talking about, was a Psi.  Basically put, she read his thoughts, discovering, I assume, that he did not commit the crime that he was found guilty of.  They were alerted when the spell that should have changed him into a lich, didn't work.  The spell will only work on people that are inherently evil, or have committed a truly evil act.  Now, if you will excuse me, I have a lot of things to do right now.  Would you like a door to somewhere, or would you rather walk?"

"No, I'll walk," Harry and Ron said almost simultaneously.

"Actually, could I have a word with you about a few things," Hermione said, shocking her friends.

"No.  I'm very busy at the moment and can't spare the time, perhaps another time."

"Fine.  I'll walk."  With that, the three left the lab and started to wind their way up the castle.

"What did you want to talk with him about," Ron asked as they passed the great hall.

"It's nothing You need to worry about, Ron."

"Ok, ok.  I was only asking."

When they passed the library, Hermione broke off and went in saying, "Don't worry, I just have to look something up."  Harry took that to assume she would be in there all day.  He was proven correct when she did not return until well after night had fallen, Ron and he having spent their day talking while playing many games of chess and Exploding Snap.  When she did return, she flopped down in the nearest empty chair with the expression 'talk to me at your own peril' written across her face.  Harry watched her doggedly for her mood to lighten, but it took a good fifteen minutes.  When he got up to approach her about what she was looking up in the library, a dimension door opened in the middle of the room.  Andranos stepped through and jumped into a chair.

"What the hell are you doing here," Harry caught himself saying.

Andranos threw his head to look at Harry and said, "Do you know how hard it is to relax in the Slytherin common room?  I swear, if I hear Draco Malfoy talking about his father one more time, I'm going to kill him."

"Well why'd you have to come here," Ron threw at him.

"Why not?  Is there a rule that says a Slytherin can't be in the Gryffindor common room?"

"Hermione, you want to field that one," Harry said.

"Yes, there is."

"Fuck the rule.  I don't give a shit about the rule.  Besides, I came here specifically to see if your female friend here still wanted to have a chat."

"Yes, I do.  But why couldn't you do it before but you're free to do it now?"

"Well, oh by the way, that Lord Voldemort's a real prick.  I mean, he kept trying to get them to kill me and your headmaster, and when they refused, he tried to do it himself.  I'll tell you this, he does Not look good as a fluffy bunny rabbit," Andranos answered as he started laughing.

"What do you mean he tried to kill you and Dumbledore," Harry remarked.

"Well, that's the reason I couldn't talk with you before.  I was instructed by the emperors to accompany your headmaster for a formal parley with Lord Voldemort.  The point of which was to discern what the purpose of their siege was and to see if a negotiation for surrender could be worked out.  By the way, they were insistent on there being no surrender.  Their purpose is to take control of the castle in as complete a state as possible.  If you could please circulate that among the students you would be saving me a shit load of trouble."

Taken aback, Hermione responded only with a "Oh, that's a pretty good reason."

"What did you want to ask me, or more to the point, will it take very long?"

"Well, I wanted to ask you a just a few things, but they are rather big things, I expect."

"Ok, then."  Andranos opened a pair of dimension doors and motioned for Hermione to take one of them.  He took one of them after motioning that the other was for her to take.

Hermione got up and walked over to the doorway, "It's not a problem with You if I go, is it Ron?"

"Why would it be?"

"Ok," she said before turning back and walking through the door.

Ron went to bed shortly thereafter, Harry choosing to wait up to for Hermione to come back, under the pretense of wanting to do some of his homework.  She didn't get back until well after midnight, startling Harry, who was dozing off in a chair.

When she entered the tower, via Another dimension door, Hermione paused only long enough to say goodnight to Harry before going to bed.  Feeling a bit frustrated, Harry decided to go up to bed himself.  Harry got to the room to find blood splattered all across the walls, the bodies of his bunkmates strewn about the place in a horribly grotesque manner.  He approached Ron and saw his belly slashed open, and his intestines had been used to tie him up.  He heard a wheezing sound come over from where Neville's body was.  Harry ran over to him in an effort to help him but when he got there, he saw Voldemort crouching on the floor, making the sound.  The Dark Wizard pounced on him and wrapped his hands around Harry's throat.  With an evil look in his eyes, he shoved Harry to the floor and said, "Time to wake up Harry."

Harry nearly knocked Hermione to the floor as he jumped out of the chair, arms swinging.  Once he had calmed down, Harry sat back down to see Hermione standing beside him.  "Are you alright Harry?"

"Y-Yeah.  I'm fine," Harry responded.  "When did you get back?"

"Just a minute ago."

Harry looked at his watch and found it to be just after midnight.  "What took you so long in coming back?"

"Well, Andranos and I sat down and started talking, there where a few things I wanted to ask him about the politics of his country.  It came up a ways through about the house elves here at Hogwarts.  He wanted to go down and have a talk with them and wanted me to go with him.  It turns out the elves do not speak elvish, which he is fluent in, and his translator doesn't work on them, so he needed me as a go-between to talk to them.  I'm going to bed Harry, are you going to sleep in that chair a bit more, or are you going up too?"

"No, I think I'll go to bed, It'd be more comfortable that sleeping here at least."  And with that, he went up to bed, finding no blood, no dead bodies, nothing unusual at all.  There he slept soundly all through the night.


	8. The Sparks Fly

A/N:  While I was perusing some of the Harry Potter books, I came across several interesting things.  I would like to share one of them with you. In the second book when Harry encountered Hagrid down Knockturn Alley and asked him why he was down it; Hagrid responded "_I_ was lookin' fer a Flesh-Eatin' Slug Repellent.  They're ruinin' the school cabbages."  Now, this can mean he was looking for one of two things, either he was looking for a something to repel flesh-eating slugs or he was looking for a slug repellent that in and of itself eats flesh.  Now, if he were looking for the latter, he would have to put it on the cabbages rendering them lethal if eaten, this would probably not be what he was after.  If, however, he were looking for the former then the cabbages would be safe to eat and would repel the flesh-eating slugs.  But, if the slugs were flesh eating, why would they be ruining the school cabbages?  Wouldn't they be eating flesh, as opposed to the cabbages?

A/N:  I was reading the reviews for this story and I would like to say a few things:

Yes, I play Magic, The Gathering, though I haven't had an opponent in a while.  I play a black and blue control deck featuring such cards as counter spell, control magic, terror, library of leng, clone and the ever popular royal assassin and vesuvian doppelganger, just to name a few.

Next, to clarify on the spells; the new ones for the wizards I just make up, but the ones for the sorcerers I borrow heavily from Wizards of the Coast, who make Magic, The Gathering, and also own TSR, inc who makes Dungeons and Dragons.  As a matter of fact, as I write this, I am looking at my copies of the AD&D Wizard's Spell Compendium, volumes one, two, three, and four.  They contain all known spells for D&D made between 1975-1995, and list everything from Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting to Zone of Despair.  I will also try to put in an author's note, at the bottom of each following posting, the names of the spells I used.

Now, I know what you're thinking right now, enough of all this fucking babbling; get on with the goddam story.

            Chapter 8

            The Sparks Fly

            Hermione, who was already eating breakfast, well more picking at it than eating it, greeted Harry and Ron the next morning.  The conversation was light among them, as it was between everybody, everyone trying to stay away from the subject of what was happening.  It didn't take Harry very long to come to terms with events but Ron was a different matter.  He kept making suggestions to go for a walk on the grounds and to go and visit Hagrid down in his cabin and only Hermione's repeated interference kept him from leaving the castle.  Not much happened the rest of the day, though Harry got the shock of his life when he saw Professor Moody sitting at dinner, quite alive, pulling a sandwich out of his cloak.

            If nothing much happened during that day, then only two things happened over the next week: Jack and Shit.  And it wasn't until the Divination class after the announcement that Andranos was seen again, apart from his own lessons of course.  When Harry and Ron when up to this particular Divination class, they were the last into the room and found, to their displeasure, that the only available table, was the one Andranos was sitting at.  Professor Trelawney, when they had all settled into their seats, informed them all that she was going to review 'the orb' with them, for the benefit of their guest today.  Sure enough, each table had a crystal ball upon it.  Halfway through the lesson, during which Andranos kept rolling his eyes and sighing dismissively, he caught Harry's attention and grinned mischievously.  He flicked his head toward Trelawney and put his finger up to his lips, signaling Harry to be quiet.  Next, Andranos stared into the crystal ball for a few seconds before letting out a loud gasp.  Then he stood up abruptly, wrenched the ball off of the table, and then bashed Lavender over the head with it.  Trelawney rushed over to him as he sat back down and yelled, "What on earth possessed you to do that!"

            Andranos looked up at her with a deadly serious look on his face and said, "I was looking into the orb just now, and I saw myself smashing her over the head with it."  He leaning forward, placed his hand on his chest and continued, "Who am I to question fate?"

            Trelawney stared back at him for a minute and said with a very tight voice, "Well, if that is the case…please be sure to tell me before hand if you have anymore of these, visions."

            Harry could have died laughing right then and there but he chose to not to do it out loud.  He instead dropped his quill on the ground so he could go down and get it so no one would see his face, which he could not control.  Ron joined him for the same reason.  Trelawney sent Lavender to the hospital wing to make sure nothing was broken, she also replaced the crystal ball that was used, which Was broken.  Once her back was turned, Andranos pulled out a cigarette and, setting his finger on fire again, lit it.  Ron also pulled out a cigarette and held up his fist at Andranos.  He twiddled his thumb up and down, to which Andranos responded by providing him with some fire.  They both leaned back and enjoyed their treats, all the while Trelawney scowling at them for polluting her perfumed room.  Harry was still getting used to this new habit of Ron's, as was Hermione for that matter, but they decided that Ron would only resent them if they tried to stop him.

            At dinner that night, a unicorn interrupted the meal.  A unicorn that came crashing through one of the windows in the great hall.  Hagrid immediately went running up to it and found, written in red blood, "Surrender now and all pure bloods will be spared." Later examination could find no marks of any kind on the corpse, apart from those of going through a glass window, and those of slamming into the Hufflepuff table.  Nothing was removed from the unicorn, no blood, not the horn, nothing.  All the teachers, Hagrid especially, were appalled by this wonton disregard of life, especially something so pure.

            Dumbledore approached the window, after the unicorn had been taken away, and shouted "_Reparo!_" after which the glass fixed itself.  After this, Andranos came to his side and held his hands up over his head, clutching something in each of them.  He stood there for a minute muttering nonsensical words at the window.  When he finished, the glass glowed brightly for a few moments and looked completely normal.  He walked around and did this to each of the windows in turn.  Harry, Ron, and Hermione left the hall while he had only done this to half of them, debating what he was doing.

            "Well isn't it obvious," Hermione said as they approached the fat lady.  "He's making them shatter proof."

            "Then why doesn't he get Dumbledore and the rest of the teachers to help him," Ron countered.

            "Well, I was talking with him the other night and …"

            "Again!"  Ron shouted.  "What is it you talk about with him that you can't talk to us about?"

            "And," she continued as if she didn't hear him, "he said that most sorcerer spells are much more powerful than wizard spells.  Torchlight."  Once she said the password, the fat lady swung open.  When they made their way through, they found Andranos standing near the fire.  The Gryffindors had grown accustomed to finding him in their common room and having him appear out of nowhere and started paying as much attention to him as they would a flea crossing the room.  "Oh.  Are you already finished with what you were doing?"

            "Well, I did all the windows in the great hall," Andranos said without turning around, "but I ran out of components before I could do all of the windows on the first floor.  I'll finish up with them tomorrow.  Shall we go down to my lab, or should we wait for another day?"

            "No, we can do it now."

            "Alright, first we go to the library then to the laboratory."

            Hermione turned right around and opened the portrait hole again and yelled back, "Bye guys," without even turning to look at them.  Andranos followed right behind her muttering, "All this fucking walking is getting on my nerves, but, it's better than having them door in here."  Harry remembered then that Andranos had said in his last lesson that he had cast something called 'Wall with No Doors' on every inch of the castle.  This spell would prevent any and all means of magical transportation within it, this included Dimension Doors, which were by far his favorite means of transit.

            Ron Looked straight into Harry's eyes and said, "Mind if I borrow your cloak?"

            "Alright, but I'm going with you."  So Harry dashed up to his dormitory and grabbed the invisibility cloak out of his trunk, threw it into his bag, and dashed back down the stairs.  He and Ron left Gryffindor tower and made their way down to the dungeons, throwing on the invisibility cloak as they got down there.  They then slowed down to a walk as they picked their way through corridors trying to remember where the lab was.  When Harry spotted a large group of people blocking their way, "Shit!  The lab is just down there," he whispered in Ron's ear as he waved down the hall.

            "Hey," Ron whispered back, "doesn't this place look kinda familiar?"  Harry looked around and was struck immediately with where the crowd was, right in front of the wall that lead to the Slytherin common room.  Upon closer inspection, he noticed that the crowd was composed entirely of what looked like every Slytherin in the school.

            "What's all this," Snape said as he swept past the invisible pair.  "Why aren't you all inside?"

            "It's that goddam sorcerer, Professor," one of the seventh year students said, "He changed the password again!"

            "Are you sure?  Have you tried it yourself?"

            "Yes Professor," the unnamed student said again.  "Look.  Parselmouth."

            Just as he said that last word, a translucent image of Andranos appeared to one side of the crowd and said, "Ah, but that won't get you in, you see.  To gain entrance you must ask yourself these questions three: what's large, what receives, and what describes you all?"  When he finished, the image vanished.  Snape stared at the wall for a minute before saying in a loud clear voice, "Bigot."  The stone door that the wall concealed slid open as a new image of Andranos appeared just inside the opening, "Your powers of logic are impressive, they are, but I shall concoct a more difficult one in a ten-day."  Once the image said this, it too vanished.  The Slytherins filed through the doorway, and within just a minute they were all gone, Snape going further down the hall, presumably to his office.

            After they were sure the coast was clear, Harry and Ron proceeded to and slipped inside of the lab.  Almost as soon they closed the door, they heard Andranos' voice coming toward them.

            "Quick, in the corner," Harry said, pulling Ron with him.  The door opened before they got where they were going and they had to tiptoe the rest of the way.

            "But if what you're saying is true, why don't they just storm the castle," they heard Hermione say.  "I mean, it's within their powers to do it, right?"

            "Of course it is, but ask yourself this, would you really want them to?  Would you rather have them burst through the front door than have them sit around outside?"

            Harry saw them both walk into the room, Andranos closing the door with a wave of his hand.  Hermione continued with, "Well, er, I don't know, what would you rather have them do?"

            "Well, I would rather have them come straight in here, but then again, I've been Trained to handle that type of situation.  I've been trained to handle this type of situation too for that matter."

            "Oh, there's something I've been meaning ask you," Hermione said as they both took a seat at the table, "what type of training do you get at the Fyndow Academy?"

            "Well, like I told you before, the Fyndow Academy trains battle mages, mage is another term for a sorcerer, and anything having to do with battle and war, they train for it.  Everybody gets overall training for two years, then they get access to sort of a community laboratory, one really big room about the same size as the first floor of this castle, with about seventy five separate work stations, each one approximately as big as this one," he continued waving his hand around.  "On the floor above that, is the library, it's about the same size."  Even from his vantage point, Harry could see Hermione's eyes widen with glee.  Her head started tilting to the left and Harry thought for a minute that she might be fantasizing about the library.

            Suddenly, her head snapped back to its normal position and she said, "Oh!  Do you have any more of that wine you had before?"

            "Well, I've only got a little bit left," Andranos said as he left the table, walked over to a nearby bookshelf, and picked up an empty bottle.  "Okay, I haven't done this in a while so it'll take me a minute to find the spell."  He set the bottle down on the table along with two wine glasses before going to a different shelf to retrieve a rather large, leather bound book, which he also set on the table.  From yet another shelf, he picked up a glass pitcher and filled it with water from the spout that was in the room.  He set the water on the table and opened the book and placed a small red bookmark just inside the front cover.  "Metamorphose Liquids," he said while he stared at the book.  He then ran his finger across the top of the book and opened it, about halfway through it.  The bookmark was on the page that he opened to, which Andranos removed and put back in the front.  He stared at the book for a few moments before shutting it.  He then opened the empty bottle, and upturned it over one of the glasses; a few drops went into the glass.

            "What are you doing," Hermione asked with a look on her face that said she already knew what he was doing.

            "Shoosh," Andranos replied.  He put his arms above his head and said, "_Zeenakuma cyinaku_," he put his arms back down.  "_Cyinaku_," he put the middle finger on his right hand in the tiny pool of wine in the glass and put it gingerly into his mouth.  "_Cyinaku geentag_," he then put the middle finger of his left hand in the pitcher of water.  Immediately, starting at his finger and spreading from there, the water turned a dark, violet color.  He poured some of it into each of the glasses and handed one to Hermione.  She sipped it and let out a satisfying sigh.

            "Oh, that's good.  Where did you get it?"

            "Well," Andranos said as he sat back down, "it's a wine of elvish invent, I know not how they make it, nor do I care.  I, er, I was supposed to give it to your headmaster, but I, er…forgot to give it to him," he finished with a grin.  Hermione gave him a piercing stare.  "Alright, alright."  He got up, retrieved another jug, filled it with water, and performed the spell again, changing the water in turn.  He then carefully poured the wine into the bottle, but the cork in, and picked up a quill and a piece of parchment, handing the latter to Hermione.  "Could you do me a favor and write down the following words: with Andranos' compliments."  She did as she was asked and handed the note back to him.  He picked up the paper and the bottle and walked over to the ghast's cage.  After unlocking it, he handed the objects to his servant.  "SLAVE!  Take these to Professor Dumbledore immediately."  Andranos opened the door and the ghast shot out of the room like a bullet.  Andranos closed the door behind it, picked up the empty pitcher, put it into the basin by the waterspout and said, "Wash this."  Instantly, the pitcher rose into the air, along with a scrub brush and started being washed on it's own.  He put the wine in the other pitcher into yet another bottle he fetched from some unseen corner of the room, putting it back there when he was finished.  Harry saw him slip a few fingers into one of the pouches on his belt and withdraw some kind of powder, which he sprinkled on the table while saying "_Zanakee_".  The table shrunk until it was small enough to fit in the palm of his hand, putting it on a shelf when it stopped shrinking.  He moved the chairs to one side, Hermione standing up to allow her to move her's.  She put the wineglasses she was holding on the granite counter along the wall.  "Alright, are you ready to begin," Andranos said as he reached down, grabbed the bottom of his gown-like robes, and pulled them off.  Harry got a shock when he realized that Andranos wasn't wearing Anything under his robes.  Harry looked to his side and saw Ron's eyes squinted, pointed toward the floor.  He was tempted to throw the cloak off of himself, whip out his wand, and throw every curse and hex he knew at Andranos but somehow, seeing as how he would be facing a battle mage, he decided it would not be a wise thing to do.  He looked back up and saw that Andranos had already thrown his robes off to one side and, feeling a fresh sense of fury, Hermione was removing her clothes.  When she got down to her underwear, she stopped, tossing her clothes to one side as well, holding her wand out in front of her.  Harry was struck just then about how attractive Hermione was, thinking he had to be an idiot for having to see her in nothing but a bra and panties to notice.  Ron looked up just then and Harry had to restrain him from charging Andranos right then and there, wand be damned.

"Okay, I'm ready.  Are we going to continue were we left of the other night?"

"Yes," Andranos responded, holding up a small staff, roughly four feet long.  He held it in his hand, holding it above his head while shouting "_Vor_!"  Immediately, a white flash filled the room and Harry was momentarily blinded.  It took him a minute to fully regain his vision and for all the black dots to disappear.  "Alright, let's try it again, remember the motion," the naked man said as he took a few steps back.

Hermione swung her wand over her head, did a small circle in front of her and shouted "_Rodea Banis_!" a faint blue jet shot out of her wand and hit the staff.

Andranos held the staff up over his head and shouted "_Vor_!"  Another blinding white flash filled the room but Harry was smart enough to close his eyes before hand.  Still, when he opened them black spots danced before him.  "Okay, that was good, but remember to give it that little flick at the end."

Hermione reared back and did it again, but gave the wand a little upward flick before she shouted "_Rodea Banis_!" and another blue jet, this one a little darker, shot from her wand and hit the staff.

Andranos held the staff up again and shouted "_Vor_!" but this time nothing happed.  Again he shouted "_Vor_!" but still nothing happened.  "Very good.  Now lets try something else.  With the same movement, say 'Vigia Indosa', I've already prepared a few things for this spell."

Hermione performed the same motion and shouted "_Vigia Indosa_!" but nothing happened.

"Oh, I forgot, this one is Without that little flick."

"Thanks for telling me," Hermione said back to him, "You know, I'm staring to think you just like watching me dance around in my knickers."  She swung her wand over her head, did a small circle in front of her and shouted "_Vigia Indosa_!"  Everything in the room, the shelves, the cages, the books, the table, even Andranos and Hermione, briefly glowed faintly and sparks flew off of them.  Andranos, who was ginning before, dropped his smile and he snapped his head to look straight into Harry's eyes.  He turned his body to face him too, swung his left arm in front of him and his right arm behind him.  He then swung his right arm as if he was bowling while saying "_Zeena Kuma Tee_!", the whole process taking less than a second.  When his right arm got perpendicular to his body, a bolt of lightning shot out of his hand, heading straight for Harry.

A/N:  Andranos set his finger on fire with a Cantrip.

            Andranos was casting Glassteel on the windows.

Andranos closed the door with a Cantrip.

Take a wild guess what Andranos cast on the water.

An Unseen Servant washed the pitcher.

Andranos shrunk the table with the reversed form of the spell Enlarge.

Vor! Is a command word, it activates a spell stored on an object.  I don't know what spell will do what the staff did, so don't ask me.

Rodea Banis! is a conversion of the spell Wandbane, which renders a wand or other magical device useless for a short time.

WARNING!  WARNING!

If you like a sense of suspense, don't read down any further.  If you can't stand to not know everything, read on.

Vigia Indosa! Is a conversion of the spell Invisibility Purge, guess what that does.


	9. Times Up

A/N:  I apologize for the long time between this posting and the last, but upon trying to find new ways to avoid the cleaning of my house, rediscovered the joys of the Armored Core series on my Playstation2.  And after I had completed all 3 Armored Cores, I was going to write, but then I saw a commercial for Frank Herbert's Children of Dune mini-series on the Sci-Fi channel at 9:00 on March 16, 2003 (this is not a plug), which at the time I'm writing this author's note, will air in exactly 43 hours and 38 minutes and I wanted to finished the third book in the dune trilogy before I watched it, so I've been spending much of my free time doing that.  That as well as the fact I've had a little trouble coming up with ideas for chapters, probably due to the fact that my mother never took me to the zoo as a child and I wanted to see the circus but they never came to town and…but hopefully one of my readers is a shrink and can help me with these problems of mine but other than that, I don't know why the fuck I just shared all of that shit with you.

            Chapter 9

            Times Up

            Harry sat up abruptly, sending sheets flying.  He glanced around and saw the world as a blur and, after a minute or so, someone thrust his glasses into one of his hands.  He put them on and looked up at who gave them to him and saw a man there.  He looked to be around 60 years old and dressed in nothing but a loincloth with a scraggly beard covering most of his chest.  If his appearance said he was 60, to look in his eyes would say he was at least twice that.  Presently, Harry felt a hand at his shoulder and jerked his head around to see Madam Pomfrey aside Hermione and Andranos.

            "What did you think you were doing Harry," Andranos shot at him.

            "What?"

            "Why did you go outside?  Hermione here says you might have wanted to take a walk outside but whatever it was, I hope you enjoyed it."

            "Wha…"

            "You went outside," Madam Pomfrey said leaning over him, "and you got yourself killed.  I don't know what came over you two, well, lucky for you Andranos brought a shaman with him when he came to Hogwarts."

            "Geez, Harry," Hermione said fighting back tears, "it's a good thing you were so close to the castle, Andranos was able to pull you back into the castle without getting hit by lightning like you and Ron were."

            Harry imagined himself leaving the castle with Ron under the invisibility cloak, but his thoughts were interrupted when he heard a loud gasp to the right of him.  He looked over to see Ron jerking into a sitting position in the bed beside him.  Ron looked around and started stammering about what happened before the trio swooped down on him and told him, virtually verbatim, what they had said to Harry, almost as if it was rehearsed.

            "Yeah, I think I remember," Ron said after a minute, "I wanted to follow Hermione when she left…"

            Harry interjected with, "I remember leaving the castle with you under the cloak but when we got to the steps…"

            "We found you on the steps," Andranos said, "I was able to magick you back into the castle."

            "Yes, we followed her," Ron continued, "but when she went to the library, Harry said we should let her do as she wills,"

            "And then I suggested we take a walk instead, maybe we could go outside, maybe they couldn't detect us under the cloak."

            "Well, let us leave these two to rest and think about what they've done," Madam Pomfrey said, "now all of you, out, out, out."  She pushed and shoved everyone but the old man with too little clothes on out of the hospital wing and shut the door behind them.  "Time for you two to sleep, Ceena, would you," she said to the old man.  He bent over Ron and made a snoring sound as he touched one of his fingers to Ron's forehead.  Instantly, he collapsed on his bed and began snoring himself.  The shaman came over to Harry, making the same sound and extending his finger again, as soon as it touched Harry, he blanked out.

            Harry and Ron spent the remainder of the day sleeping in the hospital wing and when they awoke, Madam Pomfrey sent them down to dinner, which they were just in time for.  When they arrived, they sat down amongst their peers and were the target of many jokes for being the first two students to try and venture out of the castle, news travels quickly at Hogwarts.  They ate their fill and were preparing to leave when Fred told them to sit back down. 

            "Dumbledore made an announcement during lunch," he said, "and he wants everybody to stay behind after dinner for something important."  So Harry waited.  After nearly half an hour elapsed, Andranos got up from where he was sitting and made his was up to the staff table.

            "Everyone," Dumbledore said as he addressed the crowd, "please listen to Andranos now as he has a very serious matter to present to you.  Mr. Andranos?"

            "Thank you.  The Emperors, in their infinite wisdom, have decided to move the freeing date of the house elves from January the first, to today."  He reached into the bag he had slung around his shoulder and removed a rolled up piece of parchment.  He held it in front of him and unrolled it.  "Mr. Dumbledore, please stand up."  The headmaster stood.  "According to Dymorian law, you as headmaster are responsible for the slaves in care of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  Do you now choose to free said slaves now and forever of your own free will?"

            "I am not in a position to do that."

            "Very well then, please sign here," Andranos said, giving him the scroll.  Dumbledore signed and gave it back to him.  Andranos put it back in his bag and withdrew three more.  He strode over to the Slytherin table and unrolled it as he did before.  "Mr. Crabbe, Mr. Malfoy, Mr. Goyle.  Please stand up."  Malfoy and his cronies did as they were instructed.  "You three, who will hence forth be addressed as the accused, are asked the following question, as your parents cannot be reached at this time.  Do you now choose to free the slaves in the ownership of your family now and forever, of your own free will?"

            The three 'accused' looked at each other and said in a chorus a resounding "NO."

            Andranos handed each of them a roll of parchment saying, "As you wish, please sign on the dotted line."  They did as he asked them to do and handed the scrolls back to him.  He put those into the bag and pulled out yet another one, walking over to the Gryffindor table as he did so.  "Mr. Finnigan, please stand up."

            Seamus stood.  "Mr. Finnigan you are asked the following question, as your parents cannot be reached at this time either.  Do you now choose to free the slaves in the ownership of your family now and forever, of your own free will?"

            "Yes."

            "Very good, please sign here," Andranos finished as he thrust the scroll at him.  Seamus signed and the sorcerer put it back into his bag while making his way into the center of the room.  "As you all have born witness," he said in a booming voice so everyone could hear him, "Mr. Finnigan has freed his slaves while Your Headmaster Dumbledore, as well as Misters Malfoy, Goyle, and Crabbe have not.  Judgment will now be rendered."  He pulled his dagger from its sheath at his belt and started mumbling words to which Harry couldn't hear.  He continued mumbling non-stop until he had put the dagger, blade away from him, at eye level.  He put his hands at his sides and said a single word: _Syun_.  Immediately, the dagger shot forward like a bullet and buried itself up to the hilt in Dumbledore's neck.  The Headmaster responded by clasping his hands around it and his throat while moving his mouth like a fish out of water, gasping for breath, blood gushing out all over the table and down his clothes.  After a minute, his hands fell as well as his head in a limp a lifeless state.  He was dead.

            Panic ensued.  People were jumping up and running for the doors, everyone was screaming.  Harry looked over to see Hermione had fainted and as she lay on the floor, was in danger of being trampled to death.

"SILENCE!" Andranos screamed over the din.  He clapped his hands together and a sound echoed through the room that sounded like an explosion had emanated from him.  People had started to look back at him, though everyone was quiet now.  Harry glanced around the room and glimpsed Malfoy and his thugs standing exactly were they were before, transfixed on the sight of the dead Dumbledore.  Everybody that was near them moved away, sensing what was next.

Crabbe and Goyle turned and bolted in opposite directions.  Andranos turned to face Crabbe and calmly said, "No, don't run."  He criss-crossed his arms over his face.  While quickly opening his arms, he shouted out _jintag_!  Suddenly, five small, pulsating red balls shot out from him, two from each arm and one from his chest.  They spread apart with a low-pitched whoosh and converged on Crabbe's back.  Crabbe seemed to trip and flew a few more feet before coming to a skidding halt near the end of the table, blood pouring out of the gaping holes in his back.  Andranos spun around to face Goyle, who just stood there, a look of complete terror on his face.  Andranos stretched both arms out in front of him, palms facing Goyle, fingers pointed up.  He then pulled his right arm back to his side with his palms still facing Goyle and then suddenly jerked if forward.  Goyle flew back against the wall and slumped to the floor.  Andranos mumbled a few words that Harry couldn't hear and reached out in front of him, grabbing at some unseen object.  Immediately, Goyle's head tilted skyward and he began screaming a horrible, blood-curdling screech.  Harry sat transfixed and watched as Goyle's scream tapered off to silence.  A few moments later, a loud, sickening crunch was heard as blood began pouring out of Goyle's mouth.  The blood sprayed out and he jerked his head back and forth.  The blood stayed suspended in midair in several places until it seamed to outline a giant, invisible hand squeezing the young wizard's chest.  With a second loud crack, all of his movements ceased and his chest crumpled into a thin shadow of what it once was, sending more blood onto the floor.

Malfoy turned his head to the body of Crabbe, then, turned to look at the corpse of Goyle, finally turning his head to face their killer.

Andranos just stared back at him.

Malfoy reached into his robe and whipped out his wand, brandishing it at the sorcerer with a steady hand and a look of conviction on his face.  "_Wingardium Leviosa_!" he sounded as he waved it slightly.  The table in front of him lifted off of the floor and tilted so the tabletop was facing Andranos, sending the dishes clattering to the floor.  The table started moving across the room, sending students ducking so as not to be hit.  It picked up speed surprisingly quickly as it made its way for Andranos, who just stood there in its path stretching out his hand to meet it.  When the table was only inches from him, he said "_Sumo_" and it cracked where it would have hit him and each half spun away, falling to the floor on either side of him, leaving him untouched.  Malfoy reacted by thrusting his hand at him and said "_Accio Table_!"  The table directly behind Andranos shot towards him, clipped the top of his head, and landed right in front of Malfoy.  Andranos fell to the floor, bleeding slightly from where the table hit him.

Andranos stood up and reached for one of the pouches on his belt, but before he got his hand near one, Malfoy shouted "_Diffindo_!" causing every one of the pouches to split at the bottom, sending their contents to the floor.  Andranos looked down to see all his spell components scattered and mixed at his feet.  He looked up briefly to glare at the culprit before reaching down and snatching up a small white object.  He thrust it above his head and started chanting "_Zoma nachy atu, Zoma nachy atu, Zoma nachy atu_" punctuating it with "_Zoma sichu natu_!"  The object in his hand shattered and his head shot up to face the ceiling as he screamed.  From Harry's point of view, being behind him, he saw Andranos' face elongating into a wolfish length, as his skin turned to a dark purple.  Harry saw his fingers lengthen and the fingernails grow into claws.  Suddenly, the back of his robes ripped and two bat-like wings sprang out from them at the same time as a pair of goat-like horn started furling themselves out from the top of his head.  During this whole process, his scream changed from a low into a high pitch, and, after he seemed to grow another foot taller, changed into a wail.

Andranos jerked his head down to face Malfoy, grabbed his own robes, and ripped them off, revealing his entire skin had turned scaly like a reptile and was the same dark purple all over.  The creature that he had become just stood there, breathing slowly with heaving, readily audible snarling.  Malfoy took a step forward and yelled "_STUPEFY_!" sending a fiery red light out of his wand and hitting the creature in the chest.  It reared up drawing in a deep breath, and then hunched down to let out the most terrifying screech Harry had ever heard, a wail to rival that of any banshee.  This visibly shook Malfoy and all could tell this as he backing himself into the wall.  The creature jumped up started flapping its wings.  It hovered in the air for a brief moment before it swooped down on the terrified wizard, who shook his wand at it and silently mouthed words.  The beast dug the claws on its hands into Malfoy's neck and threw him to the floor.  It picked him back up and tossed him effortlessly across the room.  Next it took to the air again, picked Malfoy up, took him up near the ceiling and dropped him onto the Gryffindor table.  Malfoy groaned slightly after he cracked the table when he landed and a thick dark blood sputtered out of his mouth.  The creature fell down onto his chest, causing a fresh wave of blood to pour from his mouth, grabbed his head, and twisted it with a crunch.  It stepped down to the floor and knelt down into a fetal position and the whole process of transformation happened again, backwards, and a lot quicker.  Within just a few seconds, the naked form of Andranos stood up and sighed into the air.  He jerked around, sending his penis flapping against his thighs in the process, and shouted, "Hey Filch, take these men up to the infirmary to be resurrected."

A/N:  First of all, I probably don't need to tell you this, but Harry and Ron died when they were in Andranos' lab and they were resurrected at the beginning of this one.  Something you probably don't know is that nobody cast any spell to make them forget what they saw.  The human mind is very susceptible to suggestion after a traumatic event, and what could be more traumatic than death?

Next, I don't have access to a list of priest spells but I believe that I can safely say that the shaman cast Sleep on Ron and Harry.

Andranos caused the dagger to float and fly with an adapted version of the spell levitate.

When Andranos clapped his hands together, he cast Thunder Clap, a spell of my own invention.

Andranos hit Crabbe with a volley of Magic Missiles.

Andranos knocked Goyle across the room with Bigby's Forceful Hand and then crushed him to death with Bigby's Crushing Hand.

We all know what _Wingardium Leviosa_, _Accio_, _Stupefy_ and _Diffindo_ does, if you don't, you shouldn't be reading this story.

I don't know what spell Andranos cast on the table to split it so don't ask me.

Now for the last spell, Andranos turned into an Incubus using the spell Fiendform.


	10. First Probe

A/N:  I've decided to stop listing the spells used at the end of each chapter because it sort of takes the fun away from the story, as well as the suspense.  

            Chapter 10

            First Probe

            Once Andranos left the Great Hall after the 'executions', there was a mad dash to get out of the room.  With Harry grabbing her shoulders and Ron grabbing her legs, they slowly carried Hermione up numerous stairways and into the Gryffindor common room, not wanting to stick around for the disposal of the bodies.  Just as they were setting her down on a sofa, she woke up.  Nobody talked about what transpired for they were still getting over the shock of it, most preferring to do whatever homework they had in solitude and everyone going to bed surprisingly early.

            The next morning, Harry, Hermione and Ron entered the great hall for breakfast to find everyone looking skyward, some of them holding forks full of eggs halfway to their mouths.  Harry looked up tentatively to see the distant but obvious outline of half a dozen men standing on the roof, one particularly burly fellow holding a massive hammer.  On closer examination, Harry could see a quite pronounced crack in the ceiling directly in front of the man with the hammer.  It was swung against the stone of the ceiling with force enough to make it sound as if a thunderclap echoed throughout the Great Hall, the crack growing larger.  The hammer was swung again and again, each time sending dust and bits of stone to fall down onto the Hufflepuff table, which was beneath it.

            After what felt like hours of watching the hammer swung against the school, a large chunk of rock at least four feet across fell off to one side, mercifully hitting no one.  The man with the hammer then walked to one side of the building and disappeared, presumably jumping off.  Harry's theory was confirmed when a loud thud was heard on the ground of the same side.

            Next, a much smaller man walked up to the hole whilst holding something between his hands.  The object glowed briefly and was then dropped through the hole, followed immediately by the same man kneeling down and somehow sealing the rift before joining the rest of the men running for the side of the building and leaping off.  The object, which clarified itself as a ball, fell into the Great Hall slowly at first but picked up speed.  Harry's attention was drawn to Professor Snape as he jumped onto the staff table, leapt onto the Hufflepuff table, and run down to where the ball was going to hit.  With only a few yards to go, he gracelessly flung his body at the ball with his arms outstretched, catching it in midair, and landed on the floor with a dull Thoomp.

            Snape stood up and Harry noticed his eyes were open so far that they should have popped out of his skull and his skin was just a few shades darker than pure white.  Slowly, the color returned to its normal state, as did his facial expressions.  He looked around and locked eyes with Hermione, approaching her with shocking speed when he had done so.  "Where is that blasted Andranos," he shot at her when he got to her.  Harry was struck with a sudden impulse to reach out and touch Snape, to make sure this was really he and not someone doing a bad Snape impersonation.  His better judgment kept him from doing so.

            "Uh," she responded hesitantly, "try his lab?"

            Snape strode past her out of the Great Hall, pausing only briefly to look back at the staff table and give Dumbledore a nod, resuming his flight afterwards.

            "Well," now Dumbledore spoke, "you may all rest assured, whatever crisis we had, has now been abated, and I'm sure none of you want to have class on an empty stomach."

            *          *          *          *          *

            Ron and Hermione were already sitting in their seats for Potions when Harry arrived, Hermione glaring at him for arriving several minutes after the bell.  Harry would have cringed at how many points Snape was going to take from Gryffindor for his tardiness, except for one minor thing: Snape wasn't in the room.  After several minutes passed, the door to the Potions Master's office opened and Snape, accompanied by Andranos whom was holding the ball from the Great Hall, came out of it.

            "We shall be making a small departure today from what we have been doing, so that we may examine this object," Snape remarked as he waved his hands at the ball in Andranos' hands, "or more accurately it's contents.  Parchment!  Quills!" Everyone immediately got out the appropriate tools and prepared to write.  "Now examine it closely from where you are sitting and document what you see, Now!"

            Harry looked at the ball and wrote what he saw: the ball appeared to be made of glass and inside was a translucent liquid that was a very pale yellow color and had a swirling deep red streak that always kept it's shape.  Though he didn't write it down, he could have sworn he heard a faint squishing sound coming from it.

            "Pay attention, and listen to Andranos."

            "Thank you Professor," the sorcerer said with a completely calm voice.  "Before I explain this, will you please get the encyclopedias?"  Snape, after a momentary glare, ducked into his office and returned a few minutes later with a stack of rather thick books.  He handed them out while mumbling to himself about losing control of his own class to a student.  The books were in short supply and each had to be shared by three people.  Luckily, Snape was too busy eyeing Andranos to break up the Harry-Hermione-Ron grouping.  The books were plainly titled 'Encyclopedia Magica: Beasts' and looked to have seen many years of use.

            "Alright," Andranos continued, "what's in this orb is where the science of making potions and the art of magic cross paths.  In this orb is what you get when you mix one pint of human blood, three pints of ochre jelly, and one dram of acid from a black pudding…" This last comment was met by sporadic sniggers.  Andranos glanced up at the ceiling and tapped his foot impatiently.  "Now, if you're all finished?  You take this concoction I listed and seal it in a glass orb one foot across, then you subject it to a discharge of lightning.  The end result is this.  Inside is probably the most dangerous creature most of you will ever see.  Inside this innocuous looking ball is a creature known as an Amorphous Blob.  A one celled amoeboid life form with no known limit to its size.  It secretes a digestive acid that will eat through Anything, save glass and stone.  And when I say anything, I mean Anything, wood, steel, people.  It can squeeze through minute cracks and openings and it has no mind, therefore it cannot be controlled by any sort of charm such as your Imperious curse.  It is extremely magic resistant, lightning makes it stronger, cold has no effect, Fire is the only way to hurt it, physical weapons of course will be digested as they strike it.  It cannot be destroyed while it is in this orb, else I would chuck it into the fire straight away.  To further complicate matters, if it is somehow cut in two, or three or more pieces, you now have to deal with multiple Blobs.  It can scale walls with ease and slither across ceilings with no problem.  As I said, it has no known limit to its size so it could very easily become as large as this entire castle if left unchecked."

            Snape glanced around the room and gave Andranos a quick look before shouting, "Well, why aren't any of you writing this down?"  Harry was too dumbfounded from the explanation to lift his quill, as was Ron, but Hermione immediately set to work at the task.  Snape swooped over at his momentary pause and declared five points off of Gryffindor for not following instructions.  

            After a few more minutes of standing around, Andranos left the room, leaving the orb on Snape's desk.  He paused only long enough to inform them that he would not be teaching his class that morning and they shouldn't bother even going to it.  Once he had gone, Snape contorted his face and spit on the floor before resuming his normal teaching schedule.


End file.
